Mrs Down's Diary

SEVERAL months ago a white homing pigeon came to rest in the yard. At first he did not attract much attention, and I did not realise he had become a permanent resident for a week or two.

I kept spotting this white bird feasting on scattered corn around the corn dryer but did not make the connection that it was the same bird until I came to recognise his style of fluttering off when anyone came near, and then returning to the dryer to start eating again once no-one was around.

Holly, our spaniel, would give desultory chase every now and then, as did Bud, our Jack Russell, but by and large they came to accept the pigeon as part of the poultry scene. Except this 'bantie' could fly rather well.

"Shall we catch him in a net and let his owner know?" I suggested to John. "Not unless you want to see his neck wrung," he answered.

I had forgotten that the last pigeon- owner we rang about a racing bird that had given up the racing urge and taken to farm life foreshortened the bird's flying days by a quick neck twist.

"No-one wants a homing pigeon that doesn't want to go home. It's just a liability," John said

It's true. We have had the odd racing bird that lands in the middle of a gale or stormy weather to take shelter but they are quickly on their way once they have had a quick rest.

Not too long, or they might suffer the same fate as our previous long- term visitor.

But this one has now taken up residence with several of the banties in the barn roof. They are the ones that seem to be able to escape from the hen hut.

"Are you breeding racing banties?" a friend asked. Maybe. It's certainly on very friendly terms with our little flock but not that friendly I think. But it shows no inclination to leave.

Pigeons, or more precisely fantail pigeons, have been exercising my mind more than usual lately.

A neighbour has a dovecote and when visiting her house you can usually rely on leaving with a well-splattered car from all the flypasts as the fantails flutter in and out of the home from their vantage point of the roof of her house ( or visitor's car).

I recently had a brief flirtation with the idea of having a dovecote on the farm. This was quickly stamped upon by John.

I can remember bringing three baby fantails home many years ago. I put the birds in a box in the porch, left to finish a job and returned to find one of our cats had clawed her way into the box and eaten all of them. I am sure John had sent the cat a map of where to find a tasty snack.

My friend Helen has a dovecote full of fantails in her garden. Rather a lot of them in fact, so when she was asked for a few pigeons to set up a dovecote for an acquaintance she waited until night and collected 20 fantails as they roosted.

"As far as I knew I had virtually cleared out all of them," she said. "I thought I would have a fresh start and cleaned out all the nests and muck and blather. I went back the next night to check and there were 16 more fantails roosting.

"They must have all been roosting elsewhere and spotted that there was room for them once the others had gone."

This feature first appeared in the West Sussex Gazette April 30. To read it first buy the West Sussex Gazette every Wednesday.